Until now, patients with single-chamber pacemakers have not been able to access cardiac or thoracic MRI scans. The Eluna joins Biotronik’s portfolio of pacemakers approved for use with all 1.5 T MRI scans. Magnetic resonance imaging improves diagnostic capabilities for many medical conditions like chronic neck or lower back pain, soft tissue masses and stroke symptoms that cannot be adequately examined by X-ray or computerized tomography (CT).

“Due to safety concerns, most pacemakers are currently not approved for use in the MRI environment, limiting patients’ treatment options,” said Theofanie Mela, M.D., electrophysiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, and investigator for the Biotronik ProMRI study. “MR conditional systems are necessary, and giving patients better access to diagnostic options will allow for better treatment.”

There are more than 6.5 million pacemaker patients worldwide, with an additional million patients receiving new implants each year. Until recently, patients with a pacemaker or implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) were denied MRI scans due to concern that the strong magnetic fields and radio waves created by an MRI scanner could have a negative effect on both the implanted device and the patient.

Eluna pacemakers are available with Biotronik Home Monitoring, which allows physicians to manage their patients’ status through early detection of clinical episodes and device events.

A research team from Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) used functional MRI to assess the brain patterns of a Nile crocodile and determine what happens when the animal hears complex sounds. Image courtesy of Felix Ströckens, M.D./Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

fMRI of a patient with secondary glioblastoma (brain tumor). Functional localization was measured before surgery by means of a motor task (hand opening and closing). On the left, the uncorrected scan, on the right the result after dynamic image correction. Image courtesy of Quelle: MUW/ High Field MR Centre of Excellence

Brain networks from nine people were analyzed to generate the heat map above, which shows the areas that change the most (red) to the least (green), from person to person. A new study shows that individual brain networks are remarkably stable from day to day and while undertaking different tasks, suggesting that finding differences between individuals could help diagnose brain disorders or diseases. Image courtesy of Caterina Gratton.